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Tor Releases Messenger Beta For Secure Chat (thestack.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the private-chat dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The anonymous community Tor Project has released a beta version of its Tor Messenger app – a chat platform which it intends to promote among users concerned with digital privacy and security. Like the onion routing Tor Browser, the app has been designed to protect the location and the routing data of the user, and transferred information via the open source Off-The-Record (OTR) protocol.

16 comments

  1. This could be dangerous. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It sounds like the kind of thing criminals and terrorists would want to use.

    1. Re:This could be dangerous. by Killall+-9+Bash · · Score: 2

      You're right. Sounds very dangerous.... like the kind of thing NSA would want r00t on.

      --
      "Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
  2. Or you can just use cyph on tor. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    https://cyphdbyhiddenbhs.onion

  3. TOR Snail Mail anyone... by johnsnails · · Score: 1

    Is the 'instant chat' slower than TOR Snail Mail? https://lists.torproject.org/p...

  4. Too late by jdavidb · · Score: 1

    Too late for Ross Ulbricht, I see.

    --
    Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
  5. Could be useful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Could be useful during the Muslim apocalypse.

  6. It's a trap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously though, Tor is not anonymous, it's a collection list.

    1. Re:It's a trap! by gweihir · · Score: 1

      I see you get paid for spreading FUD. More evidence the feds and the NSA/GCHQ actually cannot get into TOR.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  7. Secure chat? by jez9999 · · Score: 1

    Cool! Shame it's gonna be illegal in the UK soon...

    --
    == Jez ==
    Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    1. Re:Secure chat? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Re "Shame it's gonna be illegal in the UK soon"
      Yes with older efforts like "Revealed: how US and UK spy agencies defeat internet privacy and security" (6 September 2013) http://www.theguardian.com/wor...
      "codenamed Cheesy Name, was aimed at singling out encryption keys, known as 'certificates', that might be vulnerable to being cracked by GCHQ supercomputers."
      Thats the key to gov thinking on any consumer grade secure applications.
      If that fails 'responsible for identifying, recruiting and running covert agents in the global telecommunications industry"
      The "Take 5 minutes and up your opsec game with Tor Messenger [Updated]" (Nov 1, 2015) http://arstechnica.com/securit...
      had some of the setting up options and shared secret swap.
      If under total digital surveillance ie collect it all, doing things digitally will be interesting to keep anonymity while trying to set up or looking to download message privacy.
      All the gov has to do is watch for the downloads of the application again :)

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  8. That TOR canary tweated and died by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Silk Road was TOR's canary and it was busted, and if that wasn't enough its successor was also busted. A clear "tweet'.

    This messenger is across TOR but connects to normal messaging servers to get addresses, Googles, Yahoo etc., so by monitoring those servers for this messenger client, you know whose made a TOR connection. In effect this is a collection list for TOR users.

    Pigin and Jitsi would be better alternatives.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/tor-attacks-nsa-users-online-anonymity

    "The NSA creates "fingerprints" that detect http requests from the Tor network to particular servers. These fingerprints are loaded into NSA database systems like XKeyscore, a bespoke collection and analysis tool which NSA boasts allows its analysts to see "almost everything" a target does on the internet...Using powerful data analysis tools with codenames such as Turbulence, Turmoil and Tumult, the NSA automatically sifts through the enormous amount of internet traffic that it sees, looking for Tor connections."

    "After identifying an individual Tor user on the internet, the NSA uses its network of secret internet servers to redirect those users to another set of secret internet servers, with the codename FoxAcid, to infect the user's computer. FoxAcid is an NSA system designed to act as a matchmaker between potential targets and attacks developed by the NSA, giving the agency opportunity to launch prepared attacks against their systems."

    Which means basically the same kit is there for the Chinese or Russians to do the same thing. Sorry but that's a dead canary! She's not pining for the fjords, she's very very dead.

  9. Secure? Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's secure about it, if it's over TOR?

    You do know who is a major funder of TOR, right?

    And you know why, right?

    I mean, if you want your shit going out through government exit points, go for it. I don't.

  10. From the film "They Live"... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject & this quote from it: "I've got one that can SEE!"...

    * :)

    (You've been 'targetted for termination'...)

    APK

    P.S.=> Can't have ANYONE that tells the truth around here like you - it'll upset the "Open SORES" agenda of FUD bullshit! apk

  11. IRC over TOR? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's wrong with an IRC network entirely on TOR?

  12. TFA Image is a load of crap by wardrich86 · · Score: 1

    The image TFA uses shows an iPhone. I was excited to see a mobile app... the site itself? Downloads for Windows/Mac/Linux.